


Soft Fair Well to the Summer

by RisingShadows



Series: So breathe deep [4]
Category: 1917 (Movie 2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Fluff, It's Blakes mom, M/M, POV Outsider, Tom Blake Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-27
Updated: 2020-03-27
Packaged: 2021-03-01 09:41:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23349352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RisingShadows/pseuds/RisingShadows
Summary: Sometimes, a little meddling in her sons lives goes a long way. Joe’d thank her eventually.Both of her boys bring a friend home, it doesn’t take much to see that neither of them are "just" friends.
Relationships: Joseph Blake/Lieutenant Leslie, Tom Blake/William Schofield
Series: So breathe deep [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1719796
Comments: 2
Kudos: 76





	Soft Fair Well to the Summer

Her eldest had always been a rather independent child. Now, 24 years old and a veteran of war, he still needed a bit of a push in the right direction on occasion. This was one such occasion. 

She had warned him and his friend out of the living room and into Joe’s own bedroom before she’d called Tom and his boy back into the house. Giving him the rest of the night to catch up and prepare for the questions she had no doubt Tom would be ready to bombard them with the next day. 

Now, listening to Tom chatter on with another of his many stories, she heard the slight shuffling that meant Joe was getting ready for the day. Tom clearly hearing it as well as he smirked at Will. 

“You know he never did tell me his friends name, wonder who-”

Behind her Will spluttered, choking quietly as Joe walked into the room Leslie on his heels only for Leslie to stop as well. Blinking wide eyed at Will as he lifted one hand slightly to point at the younger man. 

“The fuck are you-” Pausing as he glanced her way Leslie swallowed as he clearly rethought his original approach. “Lance Corporal right? Didn’t expect to see you here.”

The nonchalance did nothing to disguise the surprise as Will stared back at him for a moment before nodding slowly. “Lieutenant, it’s uh nice to see you again.”

“Wait a minute,” swinging around to face Tom, the older man blinked slowly. “That’s why you were so familiar, Joe you never told me your brother was in the eighth! This is why you should tell me that shit! Ah sorry mam.” 

Looking between the three Joe seemed just as confused as she was. “You’ve met Leslie, Tom?”

She wasn’t at all surprised when Tom blinked back at him for a second before sputtering out an answer. 

“You remember when the two of us were sent to warn Mackenzie about that trap? On the uh, the well I don’t remember it was April. But we crossed no-man's-land where the York’s were.” Next to Joe, Leslie looked just as surprised by the tidbit of information as Tom looked at the man’s sudden appearance in front of him. 

“Wait, you were heading to the Devon’s? Should’ve told me. Could’ve taken my message for Joe.” 

This time it was Joe who reached out to slap at Leslie’s shoulder. “Leslie!” 

Laughing Leslie didn’t seem at all bothered by Joe’s reprimand. Grinning back at him as he spoke. “What? As if you wouldn’t have taken advantage of it if you got the chance?”

“Well, since the two of you are done Tom, why don’t you go check on Myrtle?” Watching as Tom caught Will by the wrist and dragged him out the back door she turned a raised eyebrow on her eldest son just long enough to watch him blush. One hand coming up to rub at the back of his neck before she laughed herself.

Leslie’s eyes remaining locked on her son did not escape her attention even as she decided to divert their attention away from the two that had just left. “Well, it truly is a small world. It is yet again a privilege to have the chance to meet you Lieutenant, Joe’s spoken highly of you in the letters he sent back.”

“Apologies for the language Mrs. Blake, I don’t mean to offend-”

“Oh you’re fine dear. I don’t mind all that much. Joe knows what I think of all that.” Even as they spoke she was amused to catch Joe drifting slowly towards the other. Clearly hoping she wouldn’t notice when he finally managed to catch Leslie’s hand in his own. 

As if she’d say anything. She’d had weeks worth of time to perfect the art of acting as if she hadn’t noticed anything of the sort after all. Tom still had yet to admit anything and she’d caught the two practically on top of each other in the orchard a few days earlier. 

Will she was fairly certain knew that she had noticed. Though he didn’t seem all that inclined to acknowledge it either. 

Joe she thought had been trying to help Tom in his endeavor to not be caught. To varying degrees of success. His tactics were more or less just an attempt to draw her attention if he ever noticed anything they may not want her too. The issue that generally arose with those attempts was that she had noticed before he did. 

“Now Joe, why don’t you show Leslie around town? Give him a proper tour and all that. It’ll take most of the day, I’m sure.” Joe was agreeing before she’d finished and well, she hadn’t meddled enough if the two didn’t decide Leslie would be staying soon enough. “How long will you be in town for?”

Leslie himself didn’t seem to have an answer. Glancing towards Joe as if expecting him to answer instead before he turned back with a shrug. “Ah well, no set time to be back mam. Joe didn’t say how long-”

Waving him off with a smile she shook her head. “Oh no darling, you’re welcome as long as you’d like. Go on, be back by supper Joe. And don’t bother Mr. Wright, he’s already been complaining about Tom.” 

Joe wasted no time in dragging the other man out of the house once she was done. Leading him down the road as she glanced out the front window and the door opened behind her. 

Hopefully they’d have fun. And maybe Leslie would pull Joe out of his shell a bit. Her eldest son had always tried to act in control. No reason he couldn’t have a little fun, especially if it was old Mr. Wright he was bothering. She was rather done with all of his complaints about Tom. Her youngest hadn’t set out to offend the old man and she wouldn’t be surprised if he was simply offended that Tom was wandering the town at all. 

He’d never had the patience for boys, it was a wonder his two had turned out as well as they had. She’d need to visit the two soon. They were doing well for themselves as far as she knew, even with the war and their own losses in it. 

Hours later when Tom dragged Will back in a wild grin on his face she knew something had happened. Hopefully it wasn’t something the rest of the town would be talking about. Tom wasn’t exactly known for being subtle after all. 

“Mum, why’d you tell Joe about ol’ Mr. Wright? You’ve no idea what Leslie did-” It couldn’t be too bad considering how hard Tom seemed to be trying not to laugh and the fact that Will didn’t look as if he expected to be tossed out with nothing but the clothes on his back. 

“And I don’t want to know. Wash up, supper’s nearly ready and I’m sure if it’s too bad I’ll be hearing about it soon enough. You know how the gossip spreads around here.”

**Author's Note:**

> Leslie & Joe are simultaneously terrible influences on each other. Leslie comes up with the original idea and Joe stands there going in for a penny in for a pound.
> 
> Hopefully I'll write some more of them being terrible influences on each other soon.


End file.
